Lore/Zone question - why is this Kaldorei outpost here?

[Pheraz]

I found this strange little Kaldorei outpost basically "in" the old classic zone quelthalas, which is still on the not-TBC part. Does anyone know why and how this is there?



There is a little dock for boats, a tower and some sort of other ruin ???

[Aucald]

It's a left over piece of the Alpha build, inaccessible but thus far unremoved. There was no High Elven/Blood Elven art assets in Classic, and even High Elves themselves used ancient low-res textures and models from a very old version of the engine. Basically it means Quel'Thalas was always planned but NYI until TBC, in which it was added but as part of the Outland tileset divorced from that of the Eastern Kingdoms.

Pieces of an unimplemented version of Outland also still exist in the Live client, though they are now almost impossible to access:

[Combatbutler]

I found this strange little Kaldorei outpost basically "in" the old classic zone quelthalas, which is still on the not-TBC part. Does anyone know why and how this is there?


There is a little dock for boats, a tower and some sort of other ruin ???

It has no meaning, might have been a placeholder at one point though.

[Varodoc]

That outpost was meant to be taken over by the Ren'dorei. Or anyway I remember seeing some datamining during BfA alpha about the Ren'dorei getting an outpost close to Quel'thalas.

[Engal]

Been there since launch. Doubt it means anything by lore, just one of many things for explorers back in vanilla to find.

It's probably an Highborne structure. Since their empire spanned almost on all Kalimdor, you can find ruins of there empire literraly.. Anywhere. ( except the south toward pandaria they didn't get that far )

[McNeil]

Its a leftover of when they were designing Eastern Kingdoms with Quel'Thalas in mind, but decided to leave it so they can add it in the future. The high/blood elves didn't have their own architecture at the time (even their models were borrowed from night elves and reskinned). Its also roughly where the Dragon Isles was supposed to be which never got added.

I believe this location was also used in the Fury of the Sunwell trailer when we see the high elves walk away under the moonlight.

[Nagawithlegs]

Its a leftover of when they were designing Eastern Kingdoms with Quel'Thalas in mind, but decided to leave it so they can add it in the future. The high/blood elves didn't have their own architecture at the time (even their models were borrowed from night elves and reskinned). Its also roughly where the Dragon Isles was supposed to be which never got added.

I believe this location was also used in the Fury of the Sunwell trailer when we see the high elves walk away under the moonlight.

It's pretty interesting that both Calia Menethil and the Dragon Isles get brought into the spotlight in BFA, considering the old placement of the Dragon Isles above Lordaeron. I don't think it's a coincidence and it would be a great callback if they reuse the position.

[Netherspark]

What UI are you using? That looks incredible.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

It's easy to glitch into as a demon hunter if i remember right, you could jump into there at the mountains invisible wall, or into the right tower of Stratholme, fun stuff to explore.

[rayvio]

there used to be an NPC near the blocked off road to Quel'thelas named Adon as a not so subtle hint that the zone would be implemented in an expansion

[Soon-TM]

there used to be an NPC near the blocked off road to Quel'thalas named Adon as a not so subtle hint that the zone would be implemented in an expansion

And it was a high/blood elf NPC on top

But yes, in the ol' Vanilla zones there were several leftovers from alpha/early beta maps. For example this elven "outpost", which was apparently going to be part of a scrapped (or rather delayed) Quel'thalas. Other fun bits are the pre-Cata Stratholme, which featured an untextured entrance to Naxx, because at some point, Devs wanted to have the raid inside the instance, ala Molten Core. Or the gryphon roost in Kara, because it was going to be a raid in Vanilla which would have been a better tie-in to BC - until it was replaced by Naxx though.

This early version of Kara also featured a zone later dubbed as "Lower Karazhan", which consisted in a series of crypts and other VERY creepy environments, at least for WoW standards. There was in particular a subzone called "The Upside Down Sinners"... Really spooky stuff.

Oh, and as @Aucald already mentioned, Hellfire Peninsula was also going to feature in Vanilla, in a version much closer to its original iteration from WC2. But imo the version that came with BC is far superior.

[Maljinwo]

Possibly just leftovers from an earlier version of wow since Thalassian elves didn't have unique architecture

[Chronometer]

What UI are you using? That looks incredible.

This. So much this. What on earth is that, I am so jealous!

[Hobbidaggy]

Yeah if you don’t share that UI we will have to hunt you down

[Kyux]

I'm pretty sure that when the High Elves were first exiled they landed in Northern Tirisfal Glades but left after they noticed people were going mad. This led to speculation in the community that an Old God was under Tirisfal Glades (part of the pentagram theory that there were five Old Gods in the world, one at each point on a pentagram). The thing under the Glades turned out to be Zakajz, an enemy in the Tyr's Hand, Strom'kar, and Black Blade artifact weapon questlines. This landing site wasn't confirmed at all but it provides a lore explanation if you want one. Other alternative is devs playing around, didn't complete it, and left it in but walled it off.

From the Tirisfal Glades Wowpedia page, citing Chronicles Vol 1 and an in-game book:

"Tirisfal Glades were the landing place of the Highborne (later high elves) led by Dath'Remar Sunstrider after the night elves exiled them from Kalimdor. Forging inland, the high elves founded a settlement within the tranquil Tirisfal Glades, co-living with the tribes of primitive humans who told them legends about Tyr. Among known elves that were born in Tirisfal is Lorash Sunbeam.[10] After a few years, many of them began to go mad due to shadowy powers. It was theorized that something evil slept beneath that particular part of the world, but the rumors were never proven to be true. The Highborne argued whether they should expel the humans from the land or even conquer them. Dath'Remar did not agree with this because he sensed dark magic. To avoid violence, the Highborne packed up their encampment and moved northward towards another land rich with ley energies, Quel'Thalas.[11][12]"

[Pheraz]

What UI are you using? That looks incredible.

Yeah if you don’t share that UI we will have to hunt you down

This. So much this. What on earth is that, I am so jealous!

Hehe, it's one addon: AzeriteUI
https://github.com/GoldpawsStuff/AzeriteUI/tags (linking to the alpha version, because it includes a pet bar)

Thanks for clarifying, I thought I might have discovered something cool xD how naive! xD

It is so weird being telported toutland when you go into the quelthalas portal. They should really remake the whole blood elf zone.

[Vaedan]

That outpost was meant to be taken over by the Ren'dorei. Or anyway I remember seeing some datamining during BfA alpha about the Ren'dorei getting an outpost close to Quel'thalas.

I don't believe it was datamined. The only thing that got datamined was Eversong Warfront which spawned some speculation, one of them was ren'dorei getting outpost close to Quel'thalas.

[Pheraz]

And it was a high/blood elf NPC on top

But yes, in the ol' Vanilla zones there were several leftovers from alpha/early beta maps. For example this elven "outpost", which was apparently going to be part of a scrapped (or rather delayed) Quel'thalas. Other fun bits are the pre-Cata Stratholme, which featured an untextured entrance to Naxx, because at some point, Devs wanted to have the raid inside the instance, ala Molten Core. Or the gryphon roost in Kara, because it was going to be a raid in Vanilla which would have been a better tie-in to BC - until it was replaced by Naxx though.

This early version of Kara also featured a zone later dubbed as "Lower Karazhan", which consisted in a series of crypts and other VERY creepy environments, at least for WoW standards. There was in particular a subzone called "The Upside Down Sinners"... Really spooky stuff.

Oh, and as @Aucald already mentioned, Hellfire Peninsula was also going to feature in Vanilla, in a version much closer to its original iteration from WC2. But imo the version that came with BC is far superior.

Yeah, I knew that strange thing behind Strat, but I never found this little elven outpost

I'm pretty sure that when the High Elves were first exiled they landed in Northern Tirisfal Glades but left after they noticed people were going mad. This led to speculation in the community that an Old God was under Tirisfal Glades (part of the pentagram theory that there were five Old Gods in the world, one at each point on a pentagram). The thing under the Glades turned out to be Zakajz, an enemy in the Tyr's Hand, Strom'kar, and Black Blade artifact weapon questlines. This landing site wasn't confirmed at all but it provides a lore explanation if you want one. Other alternative is devs playing around, didn't complete it, and left it in but walled it off.

From the Tirisfal Glades Wowpedia page, citing Chronicles Vol 1 and an in-game book:

"Tirisfal Glades were the landing place of the Highborne (later high elves) led by Dath'Remar Sunstrider after the night elves exiled them from Kalimdor. Forging inland, the high elves founded a settlement within the tranquil Tirisfal Glades, co-living with the tribes of primitive humans who told them legends about Tyr. Among known elves that were born in Tirisfal is Lorash Sunbeam.[10] After a few years, many of them began to go mad due to shadowy powers. It was theorized that something evil slept beneath that particular part of the world, but the rumors were never proven to be true. The Highborne argued whether they should expel the humans from the land or even conquer them. Dath'Remar did not agree with this because he sensed dark magic. To avoid violence, the Highborne packed up their encampment and moved northward towards another land rich with ley energies, Quel'Thalas.[11][12]"

Would be cool to see more of that alpha quelthalas. God I hope they redo the old zones some day...

It's probably an Highborne structure. Since their empire spanned almost on all Kalimdor, you can find ruins of there empire literraly.. Anywhere. ( except the south toward pandaria they didn't get that far )

That came to my mind too. But I am not sure that they advanced around high borne so much at this state of vanilla wow

[Lupinemancer]

I found this strange little Kaldorei outpost basically "in" the old classic zone quelthalas, which is still on the not-TBC part. Does anyone know why and how this is there?



There is a little dock for boats, a tower and some sort of other ruin ???

Not to be that guy, but that outpost has been known for years, so it's not a new discovery.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Not to be that guy, but that outpost has been known for years, so it's not a new discovery.

And yet, you were.

- - - Updated - - -

Hehe, it's one addon: AzeriteUI
https://github.com/GoldpawsStuff/AzeriteUI/tags (linking to the alpha version, because it includes a pet bar)

Thanks for clarifying, I thought I might have discovered something cool xD how naive! xD

It is so weird being telported toutland when you go into the quelthalas portal. They should really remake the whole blood elf zone.

I have been thinking of swapping from my custom bartender for Azerite and daymn this might be what convinces me. It looks so good! As an altoholic, is it easy to save profiles for alts?